The San Franciscan
by Lime Green Sassy Pants
Summary: There's a new girl in Forks and Jacob imprints hard in the grocery store. Only problem is, she's taken and the guy isn't exactly Prince Charming. How will Jacob handle fighting for his imprint's affections with an abusive drunk?
1. The Move

**Author's Note: Well hello there! This story has been cooking in my brain for a while now and I've been dying to write it, but I wanted to finish the outline first. I really hope you guys enjoy and please please **_**please**_** review! I love/need/crave feedback.**

When Piper Moore looked out the window of her boyfriend's SUV, she experienced an overwhelming feeling that her choice of place for relocation had been the wrong one. Everything was grey and gloomy; not the ideal location to go to cheer yourself up.

She had decided to move after her father passed away, thinking that a change of scenery would do her some good. So she chose the exact opposite of sunny San Francisco, a small town named Forks in the middle of rainy Washington. What had she been thinking? Sure let's trade up, sunny, perky San Fran for a gloomy, grey, depressing small town! That'll be sure to cheer her up.

She sighed, acknowledging that there was no turning back now. She turned away from the dank scenery to glance at her boyfriend who was trying to navigate the unfamiliar roads. She was grateful that he had decided to come with her. Mark (the boyfriend, in case you were wondering) worked in Tech Support, which allowed him to work from home, wherever home was.

"Here we are," Mark said victoriously, pulling into the driveway of 124 Bayberry Lane. This announcement was a relief to Piper, who was worried that they might never find it. They had been driving around aimlessly for almost 20 minutes.

It was a small, one story house with two bedrooms and one bathroom. The white paint looked a bit weathered and the lawn could use a bit of maintenance. It wasn't Versailles, but it would be fine for their temporary relocation.

The movers had beaten them there and were already unloading some of the boxes. Mark hopped out and, in a fashion befitting his alpha-male nature, began directing the movers. Sorting the boxes by the rooms they were destined to be set.

Piper also stepped out of the car, examining her new surroundings. True it was a bit grey, but she was beginning to appreciate the abundance of green. Her apartment in San Francisco certainly didn't have a lush forest behind it. Maybe this was a place she could get used to.

After the movers had moved the boxes and furniture into the house, Piper and Mark set to work, unpacking and organizing their furniture. For the first time in her life, Piper was glad that they were poor, recently graduated college students. They didn't have a lot of stuff which meant less work for them.

Once they were finished, Piper fell back on their new bed with a sigh of contentment. "Well, it's official. We're Forkians," she announced.

Mark smiled and collapsed next to her, lying on his side so he could face her. "Forkians?" he asked, raising an eyebrow skeptically.

Piper just grinned and stuck her tongue out at him. She took a moment to appreciate just how lucky she was. Mark Newburgh was a very good-looking guy. He had curly dark hair and eyes that matched with a face of boy band member. Or at least, that was the comparison she first thought of when they first met during her sophomore year at Pepperdine. She had been so happy when he had asked her out, and they had been together ever since.

Mark put a hand on her stomach and kissed her with a grin. "What do you say we christen the new bed?" he asked, giving her a wink.

Piper laughed but pushed him off. Mark's sex drive was insatiable, which would normally be a good thing. Normally being the key word. His dominating personality carried over a bit too much into the bedroom. He was almost too rough in bed to handle. She often came out bruised and sore.

"That'll have to wait until later," she said sitting up and straightening out her blouse. "We need to get some food in the fridge. Unless, of course, you don't feel like eating tonight,"

Mark just shrugged, remaining in his horizontal position on the bed. "If we have to," he conceded, but looked at her apprehensively. "Be careful what you get though, you've been getting a little pudgy,"

Piper flinched. He had been hinting at her weight gain for a while now. She had always been a tiny girl throughout high school and college, but now that she no longer had time to be as active, she had gained a little weight.

She personally didn't think it was a problem. She maybe weighed 130-or-so-pounds, 5 or 10 pounds more than when Mark had met her. If anything, she kind of liked the weight gain. It had given her the curves that she had yearned for as a teenager. Mark didn't seem to be as happy with it though, so she was making a point to watch what she ate.

"You know what, I'll come with you," he said, pushing himself off the bed. "Have to make sure you don't grab any doughnuts," His tone was light, but the serious flash in his eyes told her that he was anything but joking.

They then hopped back into the car and began to drive around town aimlessly, searching for the local supermarket. Piper found herself feeling thankful that Forks was such a small town. In any other town, Mark's absolute refusal to ask for directions could lead to hours of driving around blindly, but here, there were only so many places you could go.

==++Jacob's POV++==

Jacob Black grumbled moodily as he threw items on Emily's list into the cart. He had been nominated to run to her errands today and he was far from happy about it. Of course, he was thrilled that Emily was pregnant (he knew she and Sam had been trying for a long time) but he hated that it meant she couldn't' do her own damn shopping.

When he turned into the produce section, however, he had a change of heart. He couldn't get over his luck for being nominated to do the shopping that day. The reason? Standing by the tomatoes was _the_ most beautiful girl he had ever seen.

She had long caramel colored hair tied back into a ponytail and her breathtaking, pale green eyes were flicking back and forth between two tomatoes she held in each small hand, her brow furrowed in concentration.

Jacob could feel it happening. The earth seemed to shift beneath his feet. He could feel the entire universe rearranging itself, making this girl its center. He had imprinted.

Before he knew what he was doing, Jacob was walking over to the mystery girl. "Great tomatoes today, huh?" he heard himself saying. He wanted to bash himself over the head. Tomatoes? He meets his imprint and his "winning line" is about the quality of today's _tomatoes_?

Despite the dunderheaded-ness of his opening line, his angel smiled at him and nodded. "Remarkable in fact," she said with a grin. He could have died. Her voice was sweeter than he could have imagined _and_ she had a sense of humor. Perfection beyond belief.

"I haven't seen you around before," he commented, pretending to be fascinated by a carton of blueberries.

"That would be because I just moved in today," she informed him. She placed both tomatoes in her already filled cart and turned to face him. "My name's Piper Moore," she reached out her hand and he took it, shaking it lightly. Her skin was so soft…

"Jacob Black," he choked out, realizing that this was supposed to be a mutual introduction.

"Very nice to meet you Jacob Black," she laughed (a beautiful, melodic sound).

Desperate for the conversation not to end, he looked for something else to comment on. "No frozen meals I see," was what ended up coming out of his mouth. Once again, he felt the urge to kick himself. It was true though, the food in her cart all seemed to be ingredients rather than pre-prepared meals.

"Well why settle for a frozen meal when you are capable of cooking something better?" she asked, turning her attention to a bunch of carrots. Jacob needed to pinch himself. She cooked too. She was too perfect to be real.

That very moment, Jacob realized that she was, indeed, too good to be true. A man walked up next to her, placing some spinach in with the rest of the food and glared at Jacob.

"Want to introduce me to your friend, _babe_?" he asked, placing a hand on her shoulder possessively. Jacob repressed the urge to snarl at the jackass.

"Mark, this is Jake. You don't mind if I call you Jake, do you?" I just shook my head, eyes still glued on the intruder that had ruined what he felt was an almost perfect moment. "And Jake, this is Mark,"

"Her boyfriend," Mark added pointedly.

"Nice to meet you," Jacob said irritably. It figures. He finally meets his imprint and she's taken, by this asshole no less!

"We should get going, Piper," Mark hinted none too gently, beginning to lead her away.

"Wait!" Jacob stopped them, grabbing a scrap of paper from his pocket and scribbling his number on it. "That's my number. If you guys have any questions or need any help moving, I'm on the rez, only 15 minutes away,"

Piper, his imprint, his veritable angel on earth, smiled at him and took the scrap of paper. "Thank you," she said gratefully, putting his number in her pocket.

"C'mon," Mark urged irritably, pulling her toward the check-out. Jake waved and went back to his shopping, his mind reeling with ways he could see her again.

==++Piper's POV++==

Piper was furious with Mark, though she didn't' have the guts to say it. Jake had seemed like such a nice guy, but as always, Mark saw a guy near her and ended the friendship before it could begin. It happened all the time and there was nothing she could do about it.

Mark was sitting at their new kitchen table with his fourth beer, watching Piper cook. All Piper wanted to do was grab the bottle away from him. Mark was a mean drunk and she knew that whenever he sat down with a beer, it was not going to be a pleasant evening.

She plated the Chicken Cacciatore and pasta and walked it over to the table, which she had already set with the silverware.

"What do you think you're doing?" Mark asked lowly, glaring at the plate she had made for herself.

"Eating?" she replied snarkily. She didn't know what she was thinking. She knew better than to talk back to him like that when he was drunk.

"Didn't I tell you to watch what you ate?" he thundered, smacking her plate (food and all) off the table, causing it to shatter on the floor. "Do you _like_ being fat or do you just not want to be attractive?"

Piper shrunk back into the kitchen chair, pressing her lips together. She hated to admit it, but he really scared her when he got like this.

"Fat whore," he muttered under his breath before he grabbed the plate and made his way into the new living room, turning on the TV to watch the game.

Once he had left the room, Piper got out of the chair shakily, getting some paper towels and cleaning the smears of chicken and pasta he had sent flying onto the floor. As she cleaned up the mess and brushed away the bits of shattered plate, she tried to swallow back her tears. She hated it when he got like this, she really hated it.

**Author's Note: Weeeeeeeeell? What do you think? Questions, Comments, Concerns, Compliments; all are welcome! Feedback is practically my life force which means I NEVER get sick of it. Let me have it people! **


	2. Bruised Tomatoes

**Author's Note: Hello hello hello! Thank you so much to all of you who reviewed, I really do live for your feedback. So keep those reviews coming and I hope you enjoy Chapter 2!**

Jacob sleepily meandered into the garage, yawning and stretching over dramatically. He hadn't gotten any sleep last night; how could he with thoughts of Piper swirling in his head?

"Nice of you to finally join us," Embry said moodily, having already started the opening process.

Jacob, Embry, and Quil had started a garage together a few years back. They had needed a source of income and fixing cars is what they did best, so it just made sense to open up a shop together.

"Sorry," he grumbled half-heartedly, pouring himself a cup of coffee from the office coffee pot. "Any responses to the ad yet?" he asked after the coffee had sufficiently woken him up.

A week ago, the three of them had decided to put out an ad in the paper for a secretary. They were great when it came to fixing the cars, but as far as keeping organized they were in need of some serious assistance.

"None that are worth mentioning," Quil said, exasperation evident in his tone of voice. He threw down the stack of faxed-over resumes angrily.

"Maybe our standards are too high?" Embry suggested carefully. Quil and Jake objected with glares in his direction.

"Our standards? Fine. Who should we hire? The convicted felon or the one where the references hung up on us?" Jake snapped. He hadn't meant to sound so harsh, but really? It was a ridiculous suggestion.

Embry put up his hands in surrender. "Fine, fine, I get it. Stupid thing to say,"

"No shit," Jake muttered angrily, taking another sip of his coffee.

The three of them set to work on the cars in the shop. Jake's current pet project was a 1994 Volvo 850. It's owner was a girl who had just gotten her license and she had done a serious number on the CV joints. Shaking his head at the girl's stupidity, he set to work.

Twenty minutes later, Jake heard someone walk through their front door. He groaned inwardly. They were overrun as it is, and wasn't sure if they could handle another project. He sighed, realizing how ridiculous it was to complain about business being too good, so he slid out from under the Volvo to meet the new customer, not bothering to wipe the grease off of him.

Once he looked up, he regretted the decision to not de-greasify himself. Standing at the front desk was none other than his supermarket sweetheart, Piper.

She saw him and grinned. "Well hey there, Tomato-man. It's a small world, afterall," she said light heartedly. Jacob couldn't help but grin back.

"More like a small town," he corrected, making his way over to the front desk where his imprint stood. She looked just as beautiful as she had the day before. He was unable to believe his luck that she had decided to wander into their garage. "What can I do for you?" he asked amiably.

"Well I saw an ad in the paper for a receptionist job and I thought I'd come over and hand in my resume personally," she said, pulling a neat packet of paper from his purse and handing them over.

"Well are you a felon or have you given us fake references?" he asked, thumbing through the pages she had just handed him. By now, Embry and Quil had made their way over, watching the interaction between this mystery girl and their best friend intensely.

"No…" she responded, caught a bit off guard by the question.

"Well then congrats, you're already loads better than the rest of the applicants," Piper giggled appreciatively, not bothering to ask if he was serious or not.

"Well I'm glad to hear it, Tomato-man," she said cheerily. Embry and Quil burst into fits of laughter. Jacob ignored them and continued.

"You remember my name's Jake, right?" he joked, filing her resume. She nodded. "Well ok then. Congrats Piper. Seeing as how you are the only applicant who seems competent, you've got the job,"

Piper graced them with a huge smile and thanked them profusely, and then left, promising to be there bright and early the next morning.

"Your imprint calls you Tomato-man?" Quil managed to bark out between fits of laughter.

As the weeks went by, Quil and Embry grew to be just as thrilled that Jake had hired her as Jake was. She quickly organized her workstation as well as theirs and had the place running like clockwork in no time. Not to mention that she got along so well with all of them.

Every night Piper would drive home from work feeling lighter than air. Everything was panning out much better than she had dared hoped. She loved her new job, her new house was fully moved into and was starting to feel like home, and Mark was happy. She had been sticking to her diet like he asked and she was finally starting to see the difference.

"Mark, I'm home!" she called, locking the door behind her. She walked into the living room and saw Mark in his usual spot, on the couch with a beer, watching the game. Piper flinched; how many beers had Mark already had?

"Hi Sweety," she said, kissing him on the cheek.

"Hey," Mark muttered, not really paying much attention to her. He was in a rotten mood.

A pit of dread was developing in Piper's stomach. If his moodiness was any indication, he had already been drinking quite a bit.

"I think you've had enough alcohol babe," she said cautiously, trying to take the beer from him gingerly. She could smell the beer on his breath. He'd _definitely_ had enough for the night.

"What do you think you're doing?" he growled, jerking the can away from her grasp.

"I just thought you'd had enough…" Piper said nervously, backing up a little.

"What are you? My fucking mother?" he roared, throwing the beer down and grabbing her by the chin roughly.

Piper winced and tried to pull away. He was grabbing her way too hard; she could feel the bruises forming.

After a few moments he let go, tossing her away. "Clean that up," he said gesturing to the beer can he had thrown across the room. "I don't want the room to smell like fucking Bud Light,"

Piper sighed in relief after he walked upstairs to go to bed. At least she had gotten him to put the beer down.

When she woke up the next morning to get ready for work, she didn't look in the mirror at first. She hopped in the shower with her eyes still practically closed, but after she had gotten out and caught her reflection in the mirror, she cringed and panicked for a moment.

Where Mark had grabbed her chin last night, he had left a couple of really ugly bruises. Fortunately she was prepared. She had learned over the years that oil-based concealer hid bruises like these almost perfectly. No one would be able to tell.

That day during work though, the bruises were not the only thing bothering her. She went about her normal schedule, but she wasn't feeling well. Her head was swimming and was having a hard time keeping her balance. Around lunch time, she ended up passing out all together.

Jacob was the first to notice. He was by her side in a flash and barking out orders. "Quil, get her some water. Embry, get a clean rag wet,"

He was in full on panic mode. Should he call an ambulance? Was something seriously wrong? Did she have some kind of disease he didn't know about?

He took the rag from Embry and starting wiping her face with it. He wasn't sure how exactly a wet cloth to her forehead would help, but he had seen it done in movies and it seemed like it made sense. As he kept applying cold water to her face, some of her make-up began to come off.

As more and more make-up came off, Jacob began to notice some discoloration around her chin. He cleared away some more to get a clearer look and was shocked to see an incredibly painful looking bruise.

Piper's eyes soon fluttered open and put her hand over her face. "Well this is embarrassing," she muttered, allowing Jake to help her into a sitting position. She gratefully took the glass of water and took a sip. She had a feeling that she was taking the diet a bit too far. She had been eating only what was absolutely necessary and barely even that the past few days. Mark had really been getting frustrated with how slowly her weight loss was coming.

"Are you ok?" Jacob asked, his eyes burning with anxiety. He had always made fun of Quil for freaking out when Claire fell and scraped her knee; he regretted that now. He was probably worse than Quil had ever been.

"Fine, just a little woozy" she assured him, taking another sip of water. "I think I'm ok now,"

"Hey, how did you get that?" Embry asked, pointing to his own chin. Jacob had planned on asking about it too, although he had planning on using a bit more tact than that.

Piper wasn't sure what he was asking about at first, but then she realized that somehow, her bruise had come uncovered.

"Oh that?" she asked off-handedly, her mind reeling for an excuse. "I fell in the shower this morning. No big deal," Jacob's brow furrowed. She was lying.

Embry, however, laughed. "Fell in the shower? What are you, 80?"

"C'mon Piper, I'll drive you home," Jacob said, offering her his hand and helping her off the floor. He held onto her hand for a moment longer than necessary. Her hand was so small and soft.

"But what about my car?" she asked, clearly not happy with the idea of going home early.

"I'll drive it over to you later," he assured her, gently nudging her towards his own car. She reluctantly gave in and allowed him to help her into his car.

The ride was silent for a while. Piper stared out the window, watching the scenery pass her by and Jacob was thinking of a tactful way to say what he needed to say.

"I have a question…" he eventually said, glancing quickly over to her. She didn't look away from the passenger side window.

"Ask away," she offered.

"Well, it's about your bruises… They're a weird shape,"

He could feel Piper tense up next to him, but she still didn't look away from her window. "Oh really? How so?" Her voice did not betray a bit of the anxiety swirling in her stomach.

"Well… it doesn't look like you fell in the shower. They look like… well they look like finger prints," He had just pulled up in front of her house, so he was able to turn his attention completely to her.

Piper didn't say anything for a while, she just continued to stare out her window. After a few moments, she decided it would be best to say nothing. "Thanks for the ride," she muttered half-heartedly before grabbing her purse and exiting the car quickly.

Jacob felt the sudden urge to bang his head against the staring wheel. He should have handled it better.

**Author's Note: So how are you liking everything so far? How do you like the characters? Well executed? Lacking Depth? I would love to hear from you! Hope you guys enjoyed and I'll be updating again soon.**


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